VA- 6-YEAR-OLD is in custody after shooting teacher

[Lkat3513]

Lack of impulse control is part of many behavioral disabilities. You can teach and reinforce rules till the cows come home but when the kid has poor impulse control, that only takes you so far.
I used to be judgemental and think that behavioral issues are just the parents not providing enough structure and giving enough attention but it is more complicated than that.
Although of course providing an appropriate environment helps enormously with managing behavioral disabilities...but it doesn't make them go away.

very true - but diagnosis the children at a young age can be extremely difficult. Parents may try but I see time and time again how well our mental health system has worked. They haven't make enough steps to address some of the issues. Not just with children but with adults as well.

 

[Laughing]

Middle-class parents whose children need this level of care often have to surrender custody of them over to the state in order for Medicaid to pay for it, which has GOT to be beyond a difficult decision.

rsbm


Also, after a child/youth is placed in the temporary legal custody of the state, Child Support Enforcement will contact the parents for child support.

Back in the '90's, residential care was over $6000 per month, with therapy additional.

In the state where I worked CSE, the Social Security Disability application was completed for each child entering alternative care. Some qualified for disabilty, which sometimes opened up options for communnity-based support; the process also turned up some deceased absent parents & resulted in survivor's benefits on behalf of the child.

This significantly reduced the financial burden on the state taxpayers.

(Something of a shell game, of course, as those folks are also Federal taxpayers....)

 

[x_files]

Agree. I hope they do not just place this kid into another school, that would be tragic.
I am also shocked the parent's name(s) have not been released. How will the community be safe if nothing is known?
If I was a parent in the area, I would be terrified.

I am sure the parents in that school know the parents and the shooter's names, but if he is shuffled to another district the new teachers, staff, and children and their parents would have no clue.
That concerns me.

 

[x_files]

There's no way a 6 year old understood "death"... acute disabilities or not.

There is both parental/caretaker responsibility and there's school responsibility. The public should know everything about a teacher being shot by a 6 year old in a public school.


jmo

I personally if I lived in that city with a young child would want to know about a child who shot his teacher, because it could happen again unless he is institutionalized.

 

[georgiajean]

Unless a person has either worked with children with behavior challenges, or has had their own child with behavior challenges, it is likely very difficult to understand the rage that these young people express. The natural wonder is "what happened to this kid to make them so angry?" Too often, nothing happened, it's just how they express frustration, by going zero to 60 in 5 seconds flat. They might have a communication disorder and be unable to communicate their needs. They might have impulse control. They might have any number of developmental or other disorders /untypicalities which cause them to act out when their needs aren't met. They usually have parents who have tried everything. What works usually for most kids does not typically work for these kids. It is really really hard.

The challenge for educators and specialists who work with these students is to teach them how to communicate and get their needs met without harming themselves or others. A difficult task, and one of the most important ones.

I work in a program for moderately autistic children grades K-3. Some don't have language. Our job is to help them be school ready, to help them be able to access learning and communicate basic needs. It is an expensive program, a public school program, and a very successful program. But it takes a LOT of resources and provides one adult for every child at all times. Intensive instruction, lots and lots of adult attention. It is amazing to see what happens in this program. I wish every child who needed it could have it. What we would save later on.... I wish this child had gotten what he needed, and his teachers had gotten the support to keep everyone safe.

 

[Ontario Mom]

I am sure the parents in that school know the parents and the shooter's names, but if he is shuffled to another district the new teachers, staff, and children and their parents would have no clue.
That concerns me.

I would suspect if he were transferred to another school, his school record, transcripts as well as any concerning behavioral issues, would all be in his file for the school staff to have available to them. Any time I ever moved when my kids were little (before we opted for home schooling), their entire school file (attendance, awards, extra-curricular sports, clubs, etc.) were always transfered with them.

 

[Ontario Mom]

I personally if I lived in that city with a young child would want to know about a child who shot his teacher, because it could happen again unless he is institutionalized.

I suspect at this point every parent in the city already does know. They know what school, what grade, and many of them likely already know his name along with his parent's names. This incident is certainly not being kept secret, but unless the parents of this boy are charged with a crime, there's no reason to "out" them.

 

[airportwoman]

I am sure the parents in that school know the parents and the shooter's names, but if he is shuffled to another district the new teachers, staff, and children and their parents would have no clue.
That concerns me.

This story is so high-profile, I have a feeling that people would figure it out pretty quickly.

 

[Hexe]

Unless a person has either worked with children with behavior challenges, or has had their own child with behavior challenges, it is likely very difficult to understand the rage that these young people express. The natural wonder is "what happened to this kid to make them so angry?" Too often, nothing happened, it's just how they express frustration, by going zero to 60 in 5 seconds flat.

Not in this particular case though. Here we deal with a kid who, it seems, is perfectly verbal, throws the threats of very hardcore violence left and right, smuggled the gun into school and then, unprovoked at the moment, pulled that gun out, aimed at the teacher and shot her. That's not your usual case of a disabled kid who has problems with the sensory input, communication or both and has a hard time with controlling and processing their emotions.

Here we deal with something else that requires very thorough investigation. The propensity for using violence as a solution, a planned violence, does not appear from the thin air. This kid learned it from someone. Who? How does his family environment look like? What did the parents do to deal with quite obvious antisocial tendencies of their child? What kind of therapy the child got for the issues connected to his disability? What kind of media had he access to? Was he using them under supervision?

It's a complicated matter and there is a lot of questions that have to be answered.

 

[Simply Southern]

No school resource officer for Richneck as students set to return

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer, according to Newport News Polic…

www.wavy.com

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer.
....
“There was information known ahead of time that there may be a gun on campus,” Drew said. “We were not notified about that ahead of time. The only time we knew was after the incident.”
...
“The police department along with federal partners of the ATF conducted a search of their residence,” Drew said. “We also conducted a search of records from human services, and other services the family received.”
...
“We want to know if there are any records dealing with aggressive behavior, anger issues from the school,” Drew said. “I would l like to review those records.”
....
Contrary to many parents wishes, Drew said there will be not be a student resource officer, or SRO, assigned to Richneck Elementary.
....
“If I had the manpower right now, I would ask, ‘Is that something you (the school division) would like?’ I am in favor of it, but that is their building and that is their decision.”

 

[Simply Southern]

I personally if I lived in that city with a young child would want to know about a child who shot his teacher, because it could happen again unless he is institutionalized.

I feel the child should be protected. However, we can. NOT trust Virginia Schools to protect our children.

<modsnip - off topic>

 

[x_files]

For the child themselves the fact they have a disability is very relevant. You don't treat them or expect them to act like a typical 6 year old. The flip side of that though is as a parent you absolutely need to make sure you have appropriate measures in place to accommodate the fact you don't have a typical child. Mine is 6 and disabled, he's essentially a 6 year old sized toddler so everything is planned with the cognitive function of a 2 year old with the size and strength of a 6 year old.

a child with a severe disability combined with aggressive, violent behavior should not be in a regular classroom, he needs to be in a special class, or if he cannot behave institutionalized. Not every child can easily adapt to public school.

 

[Ontario Mom]

No school resource officer for Richneck as students set to return

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer, according to Newport News Polic…

www.wavy.com

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer.
....
“There was information known ahead of time that there may be a gun on campus,” Drew said. “We were not notified about that ahead of time. The only time we knew was after the incident.”
...
“The police department along with federal partners of the ATF conducted a search of their residence,” Drew said. “We also conducted a search of records from human services, and other services the family received.”
...
“We want to know if there are any records dealing with aggressive behavior, anger issues from the school,” Drew said. “I would l like to review those records.”
....
Contrary to many parents wishes, Drew said there will be not be a student resource officer, or SRO, assigned to Richneck Elementary.
....
“If I had the manpower right now, I would ask, ‘Is that something you (the school division) would like?’ I am in favor of it, but that is their building and that is their decision.”

From the linked article:

"The investigation is vast, and Drew said the mother who owned the gun is cooperating. Drew declined to say whether the investigation shows negligence on the part of the child’s parents – if that is what the investigation will reveal.“I appreciate the question, and I understand it,” Drew said, “but I will not cross that line. … I will not compromise the investigation.”

This stands out to me. In almost every other case we ever hear about in the MSM where a child was in possession of a loaded gun (whether there was injury or not) the parent of that child is almost always arrested and charged.

In this case however, after local LE with the assistance of federal ATF agents, the home was searched, records from human services (and other services) have been searched, they've stated that the mother is cooperating and have also stated they think they know how this happened and yet... still no arrest and still no charges. To me, this lends a lot of credibility to the family's statement that the gun was secured and that “Our family has always been committed to responsible gun ownership and keeping firearms out of the reach of children.” Family of 6-year-old who shot his teacher issues statement

I think it's possible this case could be the exception to the general rule, that kids with guns come from irresponsible, reckless homes where the gun was in easy access.

jmo

 

[x_files]

I feel the child should be protected. However, we can. NOT trust Virginia Schools to protect our children.

<modsnip - off topic>

I agree the child deserves proper education in a safe environment for himself and other classmates.

 

[x_files]

Wow. Just wow. I am speechless. So this kid was running around the school with a gun, scaring other kids, threatening them, teachers basically queued to the administration office to tell them there is a gun in the building and the administrators refused to to anything about it.
Wow.
Just wow.

It seems Admin was NOT paying attention nor in charge. The children being threatened and bullied were ignored.
We teach children to speak up and then when they do minimize their fears. I hope whoever was responsible for ignoring these threats no longer works with children.

 

[IDK]

From the linked article:

"The investigation is vast, and Drew said the mother who owned the gun is cooperating. Drew declined to say whether the investigation shows negligence on the part of the child’s parents – if that is what the investigation will reveal.“I appreciate the question, and I understand it,” Drew said, “but I will not cross that line. … I will not compromise the investigation.”

This stands out to me. In almost every other case we ever hear about in the MSM where a child was in possession of a loaded gun (whether there was injury or not) the parent of that child is almost always arrested and charged.

In this case however, after local LE with the assistance of federal ATF agents, the home was searched, records from human services (and other services) have been searched, they've stated that the mother is cooperating and have also stated they think they know how this happened and yet... still no arrest and still no charges. To me, this lends a lot of credibility to the family's statement that the gun was secured and that “Our family has always been committed to responsible gun ownership and keeping firearms out of the reach of children.” Family of 6-year-old who shot his teacher issues statement

I think it's possible this case could be the exception to the general rule, that kids with guns come from irresponsible, reckless homes where the gun was in easy access.

jmo

Interesting. He also said:

“Drew declined to say whether the investigation shows negligence on the part of the child’s parents – if that is what the investigation will reveal.”
“I appreciate the question, and I understand it,” Drew said, “but I will not cross that line. … I will not compromise the investigation.”

 

[x_files]

How do schools usually handle it when a minor's clothing/person need to be searched for a weapon? Does anyone work for a school and know what you/ your administrators would do?

I think if a teacher did a search and removed a weapon it would preferable to NOT searching and have someone get shot.
I'm sure there are laws surrounding that if the school doesn't have an on-site LE, it cannot legally happen.

 

[shotgun09]

No school resource officer for Richneck as students set to return

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer, according to Newport News Polic…

www.wavy.com

There will be a heavy police presence when students return to class Monday at Richneck Elementary School, but it will continue to not have a school resource officer.
....
“There was information known ahead of time that there may be a gun on campus,” Drew said. “We were not notified about that ahead of time. The only time we knew was after the incident.”
...
“The police department along with federal partners of the ATF conducted a search of their residence,” Drew said. “We also conducted a search of records from human services, and other services the family received.”
...
“We want to know if there are any records dealing with aggressive behavior, anger issues from the school,” Drew said. “I would l like to review those records.”
....

RSBM

WHO is holding back on giving the records to the investigators?
The school? If so, Why?

 

[Simply Southern]

RSBM

WHO is holding back on giving the records to the investigators?
The school? If so, Why?

Moo...could be school or could be the child's attorney.

The JD Judge would appoint an attorney for the child, while under state custody.

 

[Hexe]

Moo...could be school or could be the child's attorney.

The JD Judge would appoint an attorney for the child, while under state custody.

Holding these records back would not be in the interest of the child, I think.